Friday, April 29, 2011

Tomato plants and Jersey heifers

I went shopping, expecting to come home with a couple dozen tomato plants. I ended up with six. What ever happened to those little six-packs of tomato plants that were so reasonably priced? I did find some expensive four-packs, but mostly what I saw were individual plants priced at over three dollars each. Wow. I guess sticker shock happens with anything we buy these days. I may have an announcement to make this evening or tomorrow. There are these people on Craigslist who buy up calves from dairies, saving the dairy people the problem of dealing with dozens of individuals coming to their farm and buying calves. These folks on Craigslist then sell the calves at a profit to themselves. Usually they only have bull calves, but one particular dairy is selling all the heifer calves born in the next couple of weeks. They are Jersey, Holstein, and holstein/Jersey cross heifers. Some of you might recall my experience with Secret, who turned out to be sterile, try as we might to get her bred.

This is Secret (on the left) with Bonnie, right after we first bought Bonnie. Soon after this picture was taken, we hauled her to the sale barn where she brought half the price we paid for her as a baby. Yes, it was a losing proposition all the way, although at least I enjoyed raising her. This pretty much soured me on buying baby heifers. However, I kept seeing these people with their ads on Craigslist and finally called them. I told them if they could come up with a heifer that looks Jersey, I'd take one. Baby calves get sick easily, so it's a risk. Plus the fact that she might end up like Secret: There's no guarantee she will breed and have a calf. And of course, I'll have to make somebody else mix the milk replacer and feed her for awhile after my surgery in a couple of weeks. But I've decided this may be my only chance at getting another Jersey calf to raise. I do have someone who says we can take Bonnie to visit her Jersey bull when the time comes next year, but that might result in another bull calf. So, wish me luck. We'll see how this pans out... I'll believe I'm getting a heifer when I actually see her.

Good luck with the calf. I bet you will get what you are wanting. I had to buy some cucumber plants the other day because I forgot to order seed, but mainly because the girls were going to apply for a job at the greenhouse. I too was shocked at their prices - and the plants weren't even that great.